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EXCLUSIVE BREAKING NEWS

Your Income Demands Attention

By HEZI ARIS

YONKERS, NY -- Yonkers Tribune learned from reliable sources on January 16, 2014, that Yonkers Industrial Development Agency President and CEO Melvina Carter has accepted a position at the Yonkers Department of Finance working under the aegis of Finance Commissioner John Liszewski. She is expected to accede to her new “salt mine” in another week’s time. Replacing her will be Westchester County Board Legislator Ken Jenkins (shown at right) who has accepted a part-time position with the Yonkers IDA at a $60,000 per annum salary, leaving Legislator Jenkins with the dual responsibility to attend to the needs of the YIDA and that of the Westchester County Board of Legislators.

Mr Jenkins’ recently failed campaign effort for Westchester County Executive, coupled with his losing the position of Chairman of the Westchester County Board found him wanting financially and too far removed from his comfort zone, that of the power base of the Yonkers Democratic City Committee Chair. He had already begun to challenge present Chair Symra Brandon who was not interested in stepping down. Chair Brandon earned the support of Senate Conference Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins to hold on to her chairmanship. Mayor Mike Spano’s offer to Jenkins was a godsend.

Mr. Jenkins’ bona fides as a former Yonkers City Committee Chair, and a former Westchester County Board Legislator Chair, coupled with his real estate brokerage license, a well-respected relationship with many of the “movers and shakers” in Westchester County and City of Yonkers circles, and his ancillary knowledge of economic development issues, and the alluring tug of patronage, are the necessary ingredients that bring Ken Jenkins’ prospects to the altar of the YIDA.

Yonkers will experience another seismic shift in its political landscape. All the more reason for Mr Jenkins to be concerned over the Y.I.D.A., redefined as Your Income Demands Attention.